Generations Day has its neon leotards, Music Genre Day has its cowboy hats and flannel, Class Clique Day has its jerseys and pom poms, and Holiday Day has its four-leaf clovers and American flags. Spirit Week has the traditional dress-up days and events that students on campus are familiar with year after year. However, many of the traditions students at the school are used to haven’t always existed. Teacher alumni reflect on their Spirit Weeks from their time here in comparison to Spirit Week today.

Before the school was known as A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, it used to be Palm Beach School of the Arts, and before that, it was Twin Lakes High School. Communications dean and Twin Lakes High School alumni Angela Anyzeski recalls a Spirit Week event called Flower Parties, where students would get together after school to work on floats for a float parade based on a certain theme.

“The night before the parade, we would have an all-night flower party,” Mrs. Anyzeski said. “We would be building the float and putting the last touches, and we would stay up all night and then come to school and participate (the floats) in the parade.”

The float parade was a recurring event throughout the years in the past until it eventually became the Pep Rally known today. However, before Spirit Week was a competition between the different classes, it used to be a competition between the art areas.

“We had built floats before that (Pep Rally),” communications teacher Ruby Hernandez said. “We had a full day of SRA. At first, we did it by major, and then at some point, it changed (to being) by grade level, and that ended up becoming Pep Rally.”

Like the banner paintings, skits, Generations and Pep Rally dances, and Battle of the Bands performances of today’s Spirit Week, past Spirit Week events aligned with different art areas’ skills.

“When the float parade came around, we (visual students) were always excited about that because that was our turn to shine,” visual teacher Ryan Toth said. “Theatre had their skits and everything else and dance performances. It’s like what we have today.”

These flower parties and float parades were short-lived. Now, they’ve been replaced by other events and activities.

“All those things (flower parties) we just wouldn’t do anymore,” Mrs. Anyzeski said. “I think some of the activities we did probably wouldn’t be considered very politically correct, things that have changed.”

Due to ongoing renovations, many teacher alumni didn’t have a conventional Spirit Week. Main events featured during current Spirit Weeks, such as the Pep Rally and dances, weren’t held the same way as they are now.

“The gym was under renovation when we moved in here because it was an old building, and we also didn’t have a cafeteria,” testing coordinator and SGA sponsor Sarah Ray said. “(In) my senior year when the gym was finished, half of it (Spirit Week) was in the cafeteria, so we didn’t have pep rallies in the gym.”

Despite the renovations, Spirit Week events still went on but just moved to various open areas across campus to hold the different activities, such as the dances and performances.

“They might do some performances outside Building 4 because our cafeteria was in the gym,” communications teacher Joseph Raicovich said. “We had a lot of outdoor seating in front of that little stage, and I remember they had a couple of student dances on the other half of the cafeteria that we didn’t eat at, so we could just sit at our lunch table and watch.”

Although current Spirit Weeks are very structured and generally keep the same themes from year to year, past Spirit Weeks did not always keep the same themes and events.

“Dress-up days were different,” Mr. Toth said. “They change because of current political climates. I think it’s bigger now because when I went to school, it was more like a Wild West scenario. We were still finding our own footing, so, every week, we were just doing things that were spirited.”

Over the generations, float parades became the Pep Rally, and students were united by their grade level instead of their art area. Activities such as the dances, Lip Dub, the Student Teacher Basketball Game, and more have been implemented into Spirit Week.

“It seems like there’s more student enthusiasm and student involvement,” Mr. Raicovich said. “A good chunk of people participate on the dress-up days. Everybody’s in that gym for those Pep Rally performances.”